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What a year! Zuma’s still in charge. How? Only he knows. Anybody else would have had
the nous to resign many many times over during the last 12 months. He must be
admired for his apparent grim determination to stick it out to the end of his term.
The constant barracking by Members of Parliament, the trade unions and the general
public makes the attacks on Jeremy Corbin and Theresa May to resign pale in
comparison.
There is constant violence in outlying areas. Almost every time a new councilor is
elected the opposition seems to hire hit men to exterminate them. Even being
nominated as a councilor carries the risk of termination, but that doesn’t seem to
deter them from trying for election. Maybe the pay is the primary reason as without
the job they are mostly unemployed.
The annual figures for crime in Kwa Zulu Natal (Just plain Natal in the ‘old’ days) have
just been published and the increase in the murder rate is most alarming. An average
of 11 Murders a DAY in KZN. Majority of these happen in the Townships (areas
established for the Blacks under the old apartheid system) where housing in these
areas are mostly shacks. On the whole we are warned not to visit the township
because of the constant violence there. On one occasion during our Real Estate days
where we had reason to go into a township, we were warned by our client to avoid ‘C’
section because if we stopped for a second we would probably lose the wheels of our
car at least. Some of the more influential Blacks have houses many White would be
proud of with their next door neighbor living in a shack.
There has been an increase in armed robbery in the more affluent areas with the elderly
owners being tied up and often left to die. The taxi business is constantly at war, with
companies fighting over routes and many Bosses killed in drive past shootings. Just
recently an ambush on a taxi saw the driver and five others killed in a drive by shooting
with the driver crashing into a bakkie and killing another five. Although we have a police
force many of these murders remain unsolved
‘
Why do we stay?’ you may ask. If the New Zealand government hadn’t moved
the goal posts we would probably already be enjoying life with Judi’s family,
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